The military is currently facing a critical shortage in the number of flight surgeons. The Air Force in particular has been struggling over the past few years to fill its numbers with qualified doctors who can take care of pilots and their families. Recently, the Air Force began development of a new advertising campaign in an attempt to draw more flight surgeons. As an exclusive to this website, I have obtained a copy of the first script and will share it here:

Hello, my name is Captain Martin. I’m a flight surgeon for the best Air Force in the world. Just to show you how wonderful things are here in the USAF, let me share with you my previous week.

Monday: I got to meet real, honest-to-God pilots today. They were so friendly… so tough in their flight suits. I think that I’m going to get a flight suit, too. Joy! The colonel says that if I act right, he’ll let me hold the stick the next time we go flying.

Tuesday: I went to the confidence course today. The Air Force uses the term “confidence” because the outdated term “obstacle course” is too negative. I had such a wonderful time. As I was climbing the ropes, rock ‘n roll music was playing and everyone was saluting me. It was awesome!

Wednesday: I went to clinic today and saw patients.

Thursday: I had to get up at 4:00 a.m. this morning for mandatory physical training. I knew that being in the Air Force would be tough, but I guess that all this training is great so that I can buff up and women will stop laughing at me when I tell them that I’m in the military.

Friday: my assistants did not show up to the clinic today until after 11:00 a.m. It was no big deal. I couldn’t find any of the patients’ charts anyway. I just went from scratch like I did back when I was in medical school.

A few months ago I came in contact with the Lucidicus Project, a group that aims to provide philosophical training to medical students in capitalism and individual rights. Its director, Jared Rhoads, writes regular editorials aimed toward political issues facing physicians. In addition, it freely gives away The Medical Intellectual’s Self-Defense Kit, a collection of books and articles by Ayn Rand and others, to anyone who asks for it.

I got around to reading Atlas Shrugged over the course of my surgical sub-internship last year and now I can see why some of my readers have compared me to her. The book is set in a period of worsening economic conditions and missteps that the government takes in currently the problems. I caution you that reading Atlas Shrugged is not for the faint of heart. At more than 500,000 words in length, you’re going to have to be dedicated to finishing it. But for anyone looking for a new novel to work through this year, I highly recommend it.